


The yellow door

by luthorial



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, a karlena fic from the POV of a waitress who works in a chinese restaurant, goin on dates, its just kara and lena, literally the most fluffy thing ever like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 19:27:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10197806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luthorial/pseuds/luthorial
Summary: "Lena is the constant. It’s always either her and Supergirl or her and Kara who strut in confidently. If it’s Supergirl then they never sit in, always takeaway to somewhere secluded, Izzy imagines. Somewhere warm where suits don’t matter and the television can play softly in the background. Where they can lazily let the night draw its own pattern without the public eye on them. Lena and Kara, however, are more public. Kissing on the street outside, under the glow of the streetlamps, Kara holding a red umbrella as she throws her head back at something Lena said. They have less to hold them back."Or the story of how Izzy, a waitress in a chinese restaurant, watches Kara and Lena fall in love





	

**Author's Note:**

> i work in a chinese restaurant and BOI i had to do it

Izzy stands at the front of the restaurant leaning on the bar. Her boss is sitting just to the side of her with his hawk eyes glued to her back, and she searches for something to do to avoid criticism. The restaurant is dead, as it usually is, and she scans the tables, all perfectly clean and beautifully laid, for any mistake she can fix – a crooked placemat, a missing chopstick.

The windows are shining, the temperature is exactly right, the big yellow door at the front is propped open, its chipped paint and rusted hinges inviting customers in.

She sighs. Her feet hurt and she looks to table one, the only customers they have in, to see if they’re finished.

They’re not.

It’s a relief when the phone rings, and Izzy grabs it up quickly, answering with enthusiasm in her fake server voice. “Good evening, The Golden Chopsticks, what can I do for you?”

Her boss gets up, mutters something about doing a delivery and leaves the restaurant.

A confident voice crackles in from the other end of the line. “Hi I’d like to place an order for a takeaway?”

There’s a familiar ring to the voice, one Izzy can’t quite place but she’s sure she’s heard, like déjà vu, or a dream you mistake for a memory. Shaking it off, she grins, though the customer at the end of the line can’t see it. “Sure! Can I get a name for that please?”

The customer coughs. “Uhh…” She pauses, her voice sheepish. “Supergirl?” It’s more of a question than an answer.

Without missing a beat, Izzy rolls her eyes. “Very funny.”

“No!” The woman’s tone is defensive and, again, similar in a way that make Izzy almost believe it is Supergirl. “I swear it’s Supergirl.”

“Okay fine,” Izzy sighs, writing Supergirl by the order. She supposes it doesn’t matter what the name says as long as the person coming in knows it’s their order. “And what would you like to order?”

‘Supergirl’ rambles off her order and Izzy scrawls each item down quickly, incredulously writing a ‘x4’ by the potstickers.

When it’s done, Izzy smiles politely, hoping it conveys down the phone in a sickly way, like syrup drizzled poison to indicate that if the person walking in is not Supergirl then she’s going to be pissed. “That should be about 10 minutes.”

“Okay we’re just on our, thank you!” Supergirl answers, before hanging up, not giving Izzy the opportunity to make a sarcastic joke like ‘ _why don’t you fly here?’_

Placing the phone back in its socket, Izzy sighs, there really are some crazy people in National City.

Her heart betrays her though, beating with anticipation at the thought of seeing a celebrity. Someone believed to be a God. She wonders who fake-Supergirl meant when she said _‘we’re’_.

A clang of forks onto china plates from the other side of the restaurant indicates that the couple on table one are finished, so she scuttles over to clear their plates, offer dessert with a plastic smile plastered onto her face, and doesn’t get much more time to think about it. She picks up the takeaway when she puts the plates in the dishwasher.

When she comes out of the kitchen, Izzy sees Supergirl standing in the lobby with a slightly shorter woman behind her and almost faints. Remembering how rude she was on the phone, her face flushes.

She’s beautiful up close. Taller than Izzy would’ve expected, with bright eyes and golden hair that looks so soft to touch. Every part of her is defined, as if she was carefully constructed out of marble. Supergirl has the body of someone who people make statues of. 

The woman with her is almost an exact contrast, ethereal in her own way but with dark hair to Supergirl’s blonde, pale skin to Supergirl’s tan, and Izzy almost instantly recognises her as Lena Luthor. What a pair to walk into a shitty Chinese restaurant on a late Tuesday night. Izzy’s dad would never believe this.

“Hello.” Supergirl grins. “Was it you on the phone?”

Looking around, Izzy shrugs. “I’m the only waitress in tonight. I’m Izzy.” She moves to the till, her hands shaking and sweaty and her voice an octave higher. “I’m sorry about not believing you on the phone.” She gushes. “Also what conditioner do you use?” She almost facepalms, _what the fuck Izzy get it together._

“That’s okay.” Supergirl chuckles, and next to her Lena supresses a smile. “And I have no clue, just whatever’s in the shop to be honest.” She seems so human in the way she says it, and it’s almost like Izzy’s meeting the _other_ Supergirl, the one that everyone knows about but no one knows – the secret human identity of the hero.

She wonders briefly to herself if Lena Luthor is one of the few who really knows. She wonders what that would mean, a Luthor and a Super. She wonders if the pair in front of her could change the world.

Awkwardly shaking herself out of her awe, Izzy places the takeaway bag on the bar. “That’s a total of $56 exactly.” She laughs. “Boy, you guys ordered a lot of food. Going somewhere?”

The couple from table one leave, walking out the door and Izzy shoots them a quick thank you before turning her attention back to the current customers.

It’s Lena Luthor, this time, who speaks. “No,” She laughs, “This one just eats like a machine.” She pokes Supergirl’s side, making her squirm and laugh.

Raising her eyebrows, Izzy watches the familiar interaction, sees how comfortable they are with each other, almost intimately so.

“I’m paying.” Lena steps forward, pulling out her wallet.

“We’ll split.” Supergirl says defiantly. “Most of it is mine anyway.”

“No honey I’ve got this.” _Honey?!_ If Izzy’s eyebrows could go any higher they’d be a part of her hairline.

“Fine but I owe you one.” Supergirl sighs, her hand moving down Lena’s left arm to touch her fingers as Lena holds out her card with her right.

Right. Payment. Izzy takes the card and inserts it into the machine, waiting for the screen to load before turning it to Lena for a pin. She looks away as it’s typed in, meeting Supergirl’s eyes and returning a smile thrown her way.

Lena hands the machine back and Izzy takes the receipt, handing it back with the card. “Thank you.”

“Thank you.” They both respond in unison, Lena dropping a twenty-dollar bill in the tip jar and Supergirl grabbing the bag before they leave, chatting amicably to each other.

Blinking, Izzy stares at the yellow door they just walked through, trying to convince herself that that actually did happen.

*

She would almost have tricked herself into believing she was crazy had it not been for Lena Luthor coming in again at the exact same time two weeks later.

This time, the restaurant is empty again, but also messy. A big table of twenty have just left and Izzy is flustered from separating their bill and running around with food. Her legs ache, a deep-set soreness in her bones and she can’t wait until her shift is over. Her brown frizzy hair falls in her face and she catches herself in the mirror, trying to neaten her look. Her dark skin glistens slightly with sweat and she wipes it off, turning down the temperature in the restaurant.

When she turns around, Lena Luthor is standing in the doorway, but she isn’t with Supergirl this time. She’s with someone Izzy _almost_ recognises, a face framed by large glasses and hair which has a unique softness to it.

“Hello Izzy.” The words slip smooth from Lena’s mouth and Izzy feels amazed that she even remembered her name. “Can we have a table for two?”

“Y-yeah sure.” Izzy gulps, stepping out from behind the bar and grabbing two menus. “If you’d like to follow me.” She leads them to a booth in the corner, dimly lit and secluded. She doesn’t usually ask for customer’s names, keeps that professional relationship, but she can’t help but be curious so she asks, “Is here okay for you Miss Luthor and Miss-?”

“Danvers.” The other woman grins and again it’s suspiciously familiar the way her eyes crinkle. She holds out her hand. “Kara Danvers. Call me Kara. And here’s fine.”

Shaking Kara’s hand, Izzy smiles. “Can I get you any drinks?”

Lena answers, not Kara. “We’ll have a bottle of red wine please, two glasses.”

Kara flushes and nods, her eyes drifting over to Lena and staying there. It reminds Izzy of when her dad took her to France, a one-off treat last summer, a father daughter bonding trip. There was a lake there, by the room they were staying in, and at night the surface stilled so clear that you couldn’t tell which way round the stars were. Like being suspended in space – any way is the right way up.

Kara looks at Lena as if she’s the only thing telling her which way the sky is, her anchor to this earth.

Quietly, Izzy goes to get their drinks and when she comes back the couple are murmuring softly, foreheads almost touching across the table, lips impossibly close as if they are trying to breathe each other in.

What kind of woman has the nerve to cheat on Supergirl?

Clearing her throat, Izzy waits until they break apart before placing the glasses on the table. “Your wine.” She says, as she pours each of them a glass before leaving the wine in an ice bucket on the table.

“Thank you.” They respond in unison and Izzy swears she’s heard those exact words before, the musical sound of it in the exact same melody and the exact same key.

Pulling out a pad, Izzy continues, only allowing a moment’s hesitation. “And do you two know what you’d like to eat tonight?”

She watches Lena throw a smirk at Kara, drowning in implications and Kara giggles, ducking her head. Izzy glances away, it isn’t her moment.

It takes five minutes for them to order, but eventually they do it.

The order is exactly the same as before, all the way down to the four plates of potstickers, and Izzy wonders, just a little bit, if the fumbling blushing girl in the glasses could also be a hero.

She seems like she could, Izzy has barely spoken to her but can imagine her heart is golden.

When their food comes out, they eat quietly as if they’re in their own bubble. Izzy sits a few more customers who walk in. She doesn’t bother them.

It’s closing time all of a sudden, the night creeping up on the small Chinese restaurant like a vampire from a fiction novel and they’re the only customers left, still talking, stomachs full and wine empty.

Izzy walks over. “Sorry to do this guys but it’s closing time now.” She smiles softly.

“Oh my gosh,” Kara checks her watch, “So it is. We’re so sorry to keep you, you must be dying to get home.”

Izzy thinks of her sore feet and her warm bed and her cat. She thinks of her dad, inevitably slumped asleep on the sofa, in a position that will ache his back in the morning. “It’s okay.” She shrugs. “I didn’t want to interrupt you.”

“That’s very kind.” Lena stands up, throwing her coat over her shoulder and digging into her wallet.

“No.” Kara puts her hand on Lena’s, stopping her. The interaction is the same and Izzy feels as if she’s living in some weird sort of Groundhog Day scenario. “I owe you one remember.” Turning, Kara digs the cash out of her pocket and hands it to Izzy. “Keep the change.”

On the way out, she winks, before throwing her arms around Lena and kissing the side of her head, laughing at something the other woman said. They fade into the night.

Izzy stands, dumbfounded.

She is ninety-nine percent sure Kara Danvers is Supergirl. And she also realises that if the girl wanted to hide it she would have.

*

From then on it becomes achingly obvious. Supergirl and Kara order deliveries for L-corp. Lena orders deliveries for Catco.

Lena is the constant. It’s always either her and Supergirl or her and Kara who strut in confidently. If it’s Supergirl then they never sit in, always takeaway to somewhere secluded, Izzy imagines. Somewhere warm where suits don’t matter and the television can play softly in the background. Where they can lazily let the night draw its own pattern without the public eye on them.

Lena and Kara, however, are more public. Kissing on the street outside, under the glow of the streetlamps, Kara holding a red umbrella as she throws her head back at something Lena said. They have less to hold them back, especially as they grow more comfortable with Izzy. There’s a transformation between Miss Luthor and Supergirl and Lena and Kara, she can see it in the way Lena grins with all her teeth, the way they’re always touching somehow, hands draped over wrists and knees pressed together, she even caught them playing footsie under the table once.

It’s endearing, to watch them, the same two people but so different at the same time, like they’re stuck in their own little circus of pretend.

*

One time a tabloid snake sneaks in and before Izzy can catch him he takes a photo of Lena and Kara, eating their dinner in the booth that has quickly become their booth. The world stops with the flash and Lena turns sharply. Kara looks over, eyes wide like a rabbit in headlights.

But it’s Izzy who reacts. “Get out.” She says calmly, but firmly. The guy laughs and goes to take another photo. Izzy stands in front of the frame, placing a finger on the camera and pushing it away. “Leave the restaurant sir, I don’t want to have to ask you again.”

“What if I want to order food?” He sneers

“Oh shit you got me there.” Sarcasm sits on her words like frost. “Oh wait, we don’t serve people if they’re being unruly, drunk or disruptive, and I think intruding on the privacy of the other customers without consent is pretty disruptive if you ask me.”

“But-” He stumbles now, never having expected that he would have to deal with a short and stubborn waitress.

Izzy points out the door. “If you don’t leave in 5 seconds I’m going to have to call security.” She’s bluffing, of course, in what world does a rundown Chinese restaurant have security.

He falls for it anyway, throwing his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “Fine whatever, I’m on my way out.” And scuttles out the door.

“You didn’t have to do that.” Says a voice from behind her. Lena.

Turning around, Izzy smiles. “He was breaking the restaurant rules. Sorry I didn’t get him before he took the photo though.”

“It’s okay.” Lena presses her lips together, her face tight. “We’ll deal with it tomorrow. We don’t mind people knowing its just-”

“It would be nicer to do it on your own terms.” Izzy nods. “I get it.” She glances over. “Are you and Miss Danvers finished with your food.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll clear your plates for you.”  

*

The next two weeks are the busiest the restaurant has ever had. People come in to try and get a glimpse of Lena Luthor and her mystery woman. Crazy stalkers and more paparazzi sit on corner tables and watch the entrance wistfully until the hype dies down again.

Izzy’s dad pins the article up on the wall because Izzy’s in the picture that made it to front page news, in the corner collecting dishes as Kara and Lena eat.

Lena and Kara don’t come back again for a good month, and Izzy almost misses them.

*

When she sees them again, it’s just Kara. She’s standing by the yellow door at 10 in the morning and Izzy bumbles past her, not noticing at all as she takes off her glove to fumble in her pocket for the restaurant key. Her breath comes out in steam and she digs her face further into the scarf around her neck, trying to generate some warmth.

“Izzy.” Kara says, softly, but it startles the girl nevertheless.

“Kara!” Izzy unlocks the restaurant. “The chefs aren’t here yet so I can’t get you food but come in, it’s freezing.” She has a feeling that the cold doesn’t bother Kara too much but she offers anyway.

Hesitantly, Kara walks into the building. “It’s… about Lena.”

“Oh no did you guys break up?” Izzy’s horrified as she sets up the till. “Please don’t say yes you guys are like… the reason I believe in love.”

Kara laughs loudly. “God no I could never break up with Lena.” She sobers up a little. “Actually, that’s what I’m here about.”

Wiping the sides, Izzy smiles. “So, let me get this straight, you’re here because you’re _not_ breaking up with Lena.”

“No.” Kara pushes her glasses up her face and it’s obvious she’s nervous.

“Can I get you a drink?” Izzy asks gesturing at the bar. “On the house.”

“No that’s okay I-” Breathing in, Kara stands up straight, forcing herself to be more confident and Izzy watches as Supergirl takes over her body. She walks over to the bar and says. “It’s mine and Lena’s two-year anniversary today. I was wondering if you could put this in a glass of champagne. I know it’s clichéd and cheesy but it’s where we always eat and, you know, it’s kind of our place and-”

“I’ll do it.” Izzy stares at the ring that Kara’s placed on the counter. It’s simple but beautiful and she is so, so sure that Lena will love it.

Kara’s voice is small. “What if she says no?”

“She’s not going to say no Kara.”

“How do you know that?”

Sighing, Izzy smiles softly. “Because of how she looks at you. It’s like every answer she’s ever got stuck on is with you. Like you fell from the heavens. She looks at you not like you put the stars in the sky but like you plucked them out and gave them to her simply because she needed a light. She’s not gonna say no.”

“Thank you.” Kara’s more relaxed. “Do you really think that?”

“I do.” Izzy takes the ring. “I’ll put this somewhere safe.”

“Thank you.” Kara says again. She walks towards the door. “See you later.”

“I’m excited.” Izzy grins, and her heart feels so light. 

*

Not two hours later, Lena walks in.

“Miss Luthor.” Izzy’s taken aback. “Here for lunch?”

“No actually.” She’s hesitant, not her usual composed self and it doesn’t fit with the business image she’s built for herself, hair pulled back tight, having obviously just left work.

Izzy knows exactly what’s coming.

“It’s mine and Kara’s 2-year anniversary tonight and I was wondering if you could put this.” She holds up a ring. “In some champagne and bring it out to our table.”

Supressing a laugh, Izzy smiles. “I’m so happy for you two!”

Nervously, Lena chuckles. “Well she hasn’t said yes yet.”

“She will.” Izzy knows it, having just seen Kara earlier.

“How do you know?”

“I just do.” Izzy grins. “She adores you.”

“If you’re so sure of it.” Lena tilts her head up, composed once again and smiles, sliding the ring across the counter. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

*

Izzy brings out the champagne that evening with a thumping heart and shaky legs. Her palms hold the tray like its gold and she sees both Kara and Lena look over to her, smiles drifting onto their faces. “I heard it was your anniversary,” She says, “So the champagne's on the house.” She places the glasses down, making sure to put the right ring with the right person.

“Thank you.” They both say, staring only at each other.

Taking the tray, Izzy walks back over to the bar and watches the scene unfold.

Lena notices first, the ring glowing like a jewel in the bottom of the golden bubbles and gasps, genuine surprise taking over her face. Watching Lena, Kara grins, sliding out of the booth and onto one knee and begins to speak.

She’s not talking that loud, but Izzy can hear her murmurs, the soft whisperings of love across the small space between them and she thinks that it must feel like galaxies to them right now. When Kara finishes, Lena has tears running down her face. She leans forwards gently and kisses Kara.

Izzy hears Kara laugh. “Is that a yes?”

Lena smiles. “Look in your damn glass Kara.”

When Kara sees the ring in her glass she laughs and laughs and laughs.

Izzy insists they take an engagement photo, and they insist that she’s in it, due to her orchestrating it. She stands in the middle of them, arms around their shoulders and a grin on her face, as they stand with teary eyes and left hands glistening.

“Now this.” Lena says. “Is how you do it on your own terms.” Then she posts the picture on her Instagram, with the caption “we both said yes!!” in bold and confident writing.

Izzy forgets that Kara is Supergirl and Lena is a Luthor and cries with them and for them. And feeds them free champagne until they go home, disappearing through the yellow door one final time as the night draws to a close.

When Izzy goes home, her dad is asleep on the sofa, but next to the article is already a printed-out picture of Lena’s Instagram post. Smiling softly, Izzy places a blanket over him, puts a cushion under his back, and takes her aching feet to bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!! comments are appreciated. if ya want to follow me on tumblr im @luthorial.tumblr.com


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